One dozen bottles plus a magnum of Champagne at $150 per bottle corkage for a special lunch at La Grenouille.

[Brandon_R]

What would be the margin on the food served to such a lunch? I’d imagine not much, and almost certainly swallowed by the compensation paid to the cooks and servers.

[Mark_Golodetz]

Re infanticide

Lafleur and Trotanoy are the two backward wines I was referring to earlier, that we will probably decant at home before the lunch. But they were both showing a slightly more civilized side when we tried them last year. Not sure about Petrus; anyone tasted recently? The rest seemed in quite a happy place lately.

[Mark_Golodetz]

Grenouille is famous for its price fixe lunch menu being one of the highest in NY. It is around $85 plus a lot of surcharges. Wine list is indeed good and very but not ultra expensive. The Dover Sole is excellent. To be honest, I have only had that and the French Onion soup on the two occasions I was there.

We will probably net out at around $175 including corkage, tax and service.

[Jeff_Leve]

PS: Opening 1998 Pomerol in 2020 is pure rank infanticide.

Although I suppose you could argue that the infants will be sound asleep, so maybe they won’t have to suffer through the pain of it.

That had to be one of the lamest comments I’ve read I ages. Are you serious? Other than Lafleur, Petrus and Trotanoy, (And those are close) every Pomerol is ready for prime time drinking. These wines are 22 years old. How long do you think these wines age for ?

[Chris_Seiber]

What would be the margin on the food served to such a lunch? I’d imagine not much, and almost certainly swallowed by the compensation paid to the cooks and servers.

But if Mark and his friends were non-drinkers, the restaurant would happily welcome them to come dine there and drink lemonade and sparkling water. I’ll bet a substantial percentage of the people eating lunch there aren’t ordering expensive wine and cocktails with their meal.

So I think when restaurants say “we can’t let you bring wines and pay corkage, we need to sell wines,” that rings pretty hollow. Again, I think that’s part of the “what they tell you to justify it” part, whereas the “real reason” part is that they just don’t like having wine tasting groups there for whatever their reasons.

[Alan_Rath]

What would be the margin on the food served to such a lunch? I’d imagine not much, and almost certainly swallowed by the compensation paid to the cooks and servers.

But if Mark and his friends were non-drinkers, the restaurant would happily welcome them to come dine there and drink lemonade and sparkling water. I’ll bet a substantial percentage of the people eating lunch there aren’t ordering expensive wine and cocktails with their meal.

So I think when restaurants say “we can’t let you bring wines and pay corkage, we need to sell wines,” that rings pretty hollow. Again, I think that’s part of the “what they tell you to justify it” part, whereas the “real reason” part is that they just don’t like having wine tasting groups there for whatever their reasons.

I think the group should plan its lunch somewhere else, but go here another time, eat but drink nothing but water

[Chris_Seiber]

I think the group should plan its lunch somewhere else, but go here another time, eat but drink nothing but water

Stop for pizza or something beforehand, then just order some side salads as their entrees.

[Merrill_Lindquist]

I love this restaurant, both for the food and the ambiance. Diane Kessler and I went there perhaps 5-7 years ago, and the corkage was $80. For 2 people bringing one bottle worth well more than $80, it became a no brainer. When they realized I was ITB, they poured us a nice Champagne on the house.

My guess is that a large party of “wine snobs” is not something they encourage. The restaurant has been there forever, and to my knowledge, has no difficulty filling the seats.

I would look elsewhere for a place who is anxious to serve you.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I love this restaurant, both for the food and the ambiance. Diane Kessler and I went there perhaps 5-7 years ago, and the corkage was $80. For 2 people bringing one bottle worth well more than $80, it became a no brainer. When they realized I was ITB, they poured us a nice Champagne on the house.

My guess is that a large party of “wine snobs” is not something they encourage. The restaurant has been there forever, and to my knowledge, has no difficulty filling the seats.

I would look elsewhere for a place who is anxious to serve you.

“Wine snobs”? That is somewhat dismissive and very insulting. The dinners are carefully put together and require a lot of time to organize. Many of the wines are sourced from Europe, which means extra work. We choose times when the restaurant is unlikely to be busy to minimize any disruption.

We are easygoing and friendly, we tip well, and if the staff is interested, we are happy to share some of the wine. Not sure where the “wine snobs” comment comes from, but if it reflects your experience, I think you may be in the wrong profession.

[Jeff_Vaughan]

We are easygoing and friendly, we tip well, and if the staff is interested, we are happy to share some of the wine.

That describes my wife and me, but we would freely admit we are “wine snobs”. Me more than her, actually. I think most of the people here on this board would be considered that from, the average Cavit Pinot Grigio drinker or person who won’t pay more than $8 or $10 for a magnum of wine.

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

I love this restaurant, both for the food and the ambiance. Diane Kessler and I went there perhaps 5-7 years ago, and the corkage was $80. For 2 people bringing one bottle worth well more than $80, it became a no brainer. When they realized I was ITB, they poured us a nice Champagne on the house.

My guess is that a large party of “wine snobs” is not something they encourage. The restaurant has been there forever, and to my knowledge, has no difficulty filling the seats.

I would look elsewhere for a place who is anxious to serve you.

“Wine snobs”? That is somewhat dismissive and very insulting. The dinners are carefully put together and require a lot of time to organize. Many of the wines are sourced from Europe, which means extra work. We choose times when the restaurant is unlikely to be busy to minimize any disruption.

We are easygoing and friendly, we tip well, and if the staff is interested, we are happy to share some of the wine. Not sure where the “wine snobs” comment comes from, but if it reflects your experience, I think you may be in the wrong profession.

Mark, she is quoting Nathan in post #19 - thus the quotation marks. I thought it was clear the choice of words was meant to be tongue in cheek, but if you choose to take it literally, at least go at the original user.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I love this restaurant, both for the food and the ambiance. Diane Kessler and I went there perhaps 5-7 years ago, and the corkage was $80. For 2 people bringing one bottle worth well more than $80, it became a no brainer. When they realized I was ITB, they poured us a nice Champagne on the house.

My guess is that a large party of “wine snobs” is not something they encourage. The restaurant has been there forever, and to my knowledge, has no difficulty filling the seats.

I would look elsewhere for a place who is anxious to serve you.

“Wine snobs”? That is somewhat dismissive and very insulting. The dinners are carefully put together and require a lot of time to organize. Many of the wines are sourced from Europe, which means extra work. We choose times when the restaurant is unlikely to be busy to minimize any disruption.

We are easygoing and friendly, we tip well, and if the staff is interested, we are happy to share some of the wine. Not sure where the “wine snobs” comment comes from, but if it reflects your experience, I think you may be in the wrong profession.

Mark, she is quoting Nathan in post #19 - thus the quotation marks. I thought it was clear the choice of words was meant to be tongue in cheek, but if you choose to take it literally, at least go at the original user.

I did not get “tongue in cheek” from Merrill at all. And somehow it came across as being unnecessarily snotty, especially as it was coupled with finding another restaurant “anxious to serve” us.

But you are right, I should share the abuse with Nathan. Nathan, you are hereby abused.

[Carlos_Delpin]

Mark, bring your group to Puerto Rico. You can have your dinner at a world class restaurant for $125 all in including plenty of smiles. We can even add a few 98s into the deal.

[Ramon_C]

La Grenouille is simply playing along the space with other top local French that discourage byob (as far as I know, Le Bernardin and Daniel up-front disallow), while others charge northward of $100 per bottle (Le Coucou, Batard).

Could be tough to do large group off lines at these types of NYC establishments without paying up or otherwise look for lower end alternatives.

Of course, it could be a different corkage experience if one knows the secret handshake with the management/owners.

[Mark_Golodetz]

I would never put Grenouille in the same category as Bernardin and Daniel.

Not sure about the other two, but we used to have a great time at Batard’s previous incarnation, Montrachet. I am trying to keep this in Midtown or north; and we do have a great venue.

[Ramon_C]

I would never put Grenouille in the same category as Bernardin and Daniel.

Neither would I. I just presumed that they think should play along the same space.

[Mark_Golodetz]

To quote Terence Rattigan then,
“Il a les idees au dessus de sa gare”

[ybarselah]

The most nonsensical corkage story I experienced was at EMP years ago under the Danny Meyer regime, and when Daniel Humm was cooking there. At the time, you were allowed to bring X number of bottles, after which you had to pay an additional “dedicated sommelier fee.” Maybe $300? Don’t recall exactly. Okay, we got it - John Regan was the somm at the time and very good, lots of work for the restaurant, etc.

So we followed the rules, brought the correct number of bottles, and also bought a $1500 bottle of the list.

When dinner was over, and very good, one diner pulled a 375 of very old Yquem out of his bag - I think from the 20’s. We asked politely if we could open it ourselves, use the glasses we already had on the table and pour a small glass each. The answer was a firm "yes, but then you’d have to pay the “dedicated sommelier fee.”

So we’d, what, retroactively get a dedicated sommelier for the evening?

They were in the right to want to enforce their policy, but it made zero sense under the circumstances.

i love this story so much because so much of DM’s ethos is ensuring that his staff finds a way to say “Yes” to their diners - sounds like they followed orders quite well!! insanity.

[Sarah_Kirschbaum]

The most nonsensical corkage story I experienced was at EMP years ago under the Danny Meyer regime, and when Daniel Humm was cooking there. At the time, you were allowed to bring X number of bottles, after which you had to pay an additional “dedicated sommelier fee.” Maybe $300? Don’t recall exactly. Okay, we got it - John Regan was the somm at the time and very good, lots of work for the restaurant, etc.

So we followed the rules, brought the correct number of bottles, and also bought a $1500 bottle of the list.

When dinner was over, and very good, one diner pulled a 375 of very old Yquem out of his bag - I think from the 20’s. We asked politely if we could open it ourselves, use the glasses we already had on the table and pour a small glass each. The answer was a firm "yes, but then you’d have to pay the “dedicated sommelier fee.”

So we’d, what, retroactively get a dedicated sommelier for the evening?

They were in the right to want to enforce their policy, but it made zero sense under the circumstances.

i love this story so much because so much of DM’s ethos is ensuring that his staff finds a way to say “Yes” to their diners - sounds like they followed orders quite well!! insanity.

Right?

FWIW, and to that point, I told this story shortly thereafter to one of Danny’s partners who is a friend of mine and he was quite apologetic, said that’s not what the rule was supposed to be about at all, and promised to speak with the staff.

[Ray.Tuppa_sch]

The most nonsensical corkage story I experienced was at EMP years ago under the Danny Meyer regime, and when Daniel Humm was cooking there. At the time, you were allowed to bring X number of bottles, after which you had to pay an additional “dedicated sommelier fee.” Maybe $300? Don’t recall exactly. Okay, we got it - John Regan was the somm at the time and very good, lots of work for the restaurant, etc.

So we followed the rules, brought the correct number of bottles, and also bought a $1500 bottle of the list.

When dinner was over, and very good, one diner pulled a 375 of very old Yquem out of his bag - I think from the 20’s. We asked politely if we could open it ourselves, use the glasses we already had on the table and pour a small glass each. The answer was a firm "yes, but then you’d have to pay the “dedicated sommelier fee.”

So we’d, what, retroactively get a dedicated sommelier for the evening?

They were in the right to want to enforce their policy, but it made zero sense under the circumstances.

i love this story so much because so much of DM’s ethos is ensuring that his staff finds a way to say “Yes” to their diners - sounds like they followed orders quite well!! insanity.

Similar story about five or six years ago, which was my last time there. And not just because of this incident.

Four of us brought a bottle each to dinner. The last bottle opened, a '93 Rousseau Chambertin was corked and obviously not served. I always bring an extra bottle or two for these kind of situations, so I asked them to open one of my back-ups. We were told we had reached our four bottle limit and if the back-up was opened we would incur the $300 fee plus the corkage for all five bottles.